THE FREEDOM OF CHOICE

What does the Almighty want of us?

Disclaimer 1: All the contents of this blog are only my beliefs and thoughts; no content is written with the intention of hurting any religion, custom, cast or creed.
Disclaimer 2: I might refer to the Almighty as “Him/He”; this is done merely to communicate with ease and does not intend to promote any kind of sexism.

There are two things that I have been trying to understand almost all my life, one is human nature and two is religion. Understanding the core psychology of people is way more complicated than the configuration of the toughest safe lock in the whole entire world and religion just out beats the vastness of the ocean. We come across so many people with innumerable definitions of religions, beliefs and most of all God, and it has always confused me as to what I’d “follow”. It never occurred to me until now that it was okay, not to be bound to anything until I find the ultimate answer.

There are approximately 4200 religions in the world; each teaches it own set of morals and values, each has their own God and each has their own set of rules. But, keeping aside these rules each religion at its core stands on 4 pillars, honesty, faith, conscious and self-belief. One aspect that almost all religions fail to put through to people is “The freedom of choice”, which I’ll talk about later. For now let’s talk about evolution of religions. Over the years like all living things evolved to adapt to the external environment, religions were also evolved by fellow humans to suit their needs under the name of God. Probably, thousands of years ago religions were framed by intellectual men and women just to keep people rooted and close to their consciousness but through evolution they have turned into something that’s beyond mere explanation.

Today religions have so many aspects to it, including business, world dominance and the ultimate of all “Fear”. Some religions ask us to fold our legs before the shrine, some ask us to heel, some ask us to kneel and some ask us to touch our forehead to the ground. Each of these positions has their own scientific reason to good health that has come through many generations. But, keeping that aside, there are several other things that religions ask of us like paying visits to far off sacred places to attain the ultimate freedom after death, to walk on foot, crawl up the hills, roll down the streets, skip, swim, jump, and I know not what else. 

Some of these traditions are so unreasonable that it makes re-think the cycle of life and presence of the Almighty that we all believe in. And very sadly it all revolves around the fear of God punishing us and wreaking up our lives. It’s almost like God asking us to visit him and otherwise punish us with the most unexpected damage to our lives. That’s so unlikely of him and still we are instilled with fear by the society and we abide by it. Probably, when religions originated visiting sacred places was only a tradition to meet people, communicate and rejoice in the pool of joy, but evolution has turned coins.

In a book I came across a statement that read “Carry the ORDERS of God, No one can manufacture religion. A manufactured religion is called ‘Kaitava-Dharma’, which is better known as cheating” on the other hand the same book read “XYZ God is the ultimate form of perfection and absolute truth. His devotees are looking forward to ‘LIST’ the new universal definitions of life”. So ideally the rules and regulations, the ultimate truth and the indispensable faith that we have on God revolve around the “LIST” that MAN made? So, technically it’s all manufactured? Then what does God want?

Well, I believe, and I am quoting this again “I believe” that the Almighty needs nothing from us because it stands no advantage to him. He is in every being, he himself is not perfect but he is always trying to bring the good in us. He is the thought that lies behind out every decision, he is the feeling of “Don’t” that lies behind every lie, he is the faith that keeps us going, he is the smile that shows up after every endeavour. He would never put us in a box and ask us to abide by everything against our will; He would never bar us from freedom of thought, or stand against our will, or punish us for not following him or wreak us for questioning/ reasoning, because he never made the rules. 

Think about this, if no one and absolutely no one made you do what they think the Almighty wants and “allowed” you complete freedom to pursue your path of peace and freedom. If you could follow the religion of your choice, if you could trust your consciousness and act upon it, if you’d have the freedom to find your peace at your place of choice, be it your room, be it in a place of worship or by the foot of a mountain or by the beach or may be in a hole. If you had the freedom to make your choice, makes mistakes and learn then, and probably only then religion wouldn’t have been a business. God would not be too far for the poor and too close for the rich, God wouldn’t be a figure of fear but a figure of peace. 

I sometimes think, if the almighty does really exist and is looking down to us he’d be confused like you and I as to what is going on in the world under his holy name. So make your own choices, stand by your own definitions, follow who you think you should, or be on your own or pick and choose from all religions what you think is best. I am just a blogger, I write what I believe, that doesn’t mean you follow what I say because my virtue is to only introduce you to the real meaning behind the word FREEDOM and the rest lies in the word itself, “Freedom”.

-  Shivangi Mohite
Founder, The Dream Box Blogs